Karlsson stands above the crowd

The second weather intervention of the week did little to derail tall Swede Robert Karlsson's forward march towards his second victory of the season in the Players Championship of Europe.

The Wales Open champion led by a shot from three men heading into yesterday's third round and by the time the threat of thunder and lightning had passed, Karlsson had increased his lead to four strokes with a five-birdie 31 over the front nine of the Gut Kaden Course near Hamburg.

But Lee Westwood clawed back half of that deficit after the interruption, leaving Karlsson after a 66 two strokes clear of the Englishman at the end of the day.

There was no suggestion that the break distracted him, but Karlsson made mention of the fact that while the players were sitting in shelter, someone stole the coin he had used to mark his ball on the 11th green. He had to estimate the position of his ball. 'I made sure it was no closer,' he said. Then he parred the rest of the holes except the long 17th, which he birdied after just missing an eagle attempt from 15 feet.

With Ryder Cup talk surfacing whenever and wherever possible these days, Karlsson was at pains to say that the possibility of qualifying for the team with victory today was largely irrelevant to him - so far.

'There is a lot more to play for tomorrow than the Ryder Cup. If I were to win, maybe I'll think about that on Monday,' said Karlsson, though perhaps he still feels chastened at being overlooked as a wildcard pick in 1999 despite the fact that he stood 11th in the table at the moment of truth. Only the top 10 earned automatic selection and then-captain Mark James did not deem Karlsson worthy of a place at Brookline that year.

Westwood, who is just emerging from a lengthy spell of poor form, has adopted a similar attitude towards the possibility of making the team, though he softened his stance this week by saying he would love to qualify for it. But, for today's final round, he said: 'I'm just looking for a win. I'm thinking of nothing else.'

Meanwhile, his 63 in the first round, which was interrupted for two hours 35 minutes by a thunderstorm, still stands as the best round of the week. Sergio Garcia is a team certainty and his form has improved since he returned to Europe for the past three weeks, including his fifth-place finish at in The Open at Hoylake. He managed a 67 yesterday, but was six strokes adrift of Karlsson.

Sergio Garcia looked fresh after his round but admitted to a bit of fatigue in the aftermath of the Open, where he shared fifth place: 'I am a little tired. I'm not practising before and after my rounds as much as I normally would,' he said.

With all the talk of the Ryder Cup, Graeme McDowell, the Northern Irishman from Portrush who celebrates his 27th birthday today, took the sensible move of distancing himself from the fray by saying that he all but abandoned hope of making the team.

There is no doubt that he has the talent to one day claim a spot by right on a European team but it would take an extraordinary turn, such as winning the USPGA in August, to claim a place at the K Club in September.

'It is not nice for me to say that the Ryder Cup has gone, but I think it has because I haven't played well enough over the last couple of months,' he said.